


Strays

by Lookatallmyships



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: (Amy/Beth), Alternate Universe - Dogs, Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Amy deserved better, Dog!Daryl, Dog!Glenn, Dog!Merle, Established Relationship, F/F, First Meetings, Human!Amy, Human!Beth, Lesbian Characters, M/M, New Beginnings, Pre-Slash, Rare Pairings, darlenn, sick!Merle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27794185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lookatallmyships/pseuds/Lookatallmyships
Summary: Daryl and Merle are strays who do fairly ok for themselves. Then Merle gets sick and Daryl doesn't know what to do.
Relationships: Amy/Beth Greene (Walking Dead), Daryl Dixon & Merle Dixon, Daryl Dixon/Glenn Rhee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Strays

Daryl paces back and forth whining anxiously. "Merle, are you sure you don't want to go somewhere and get help? You're getting worse."

Merle growls and Daryl can hear the weakness in his voice despite his brother’s attempt to hide it. "No. Any human would soon as take one look at us strays and before you know it, we'd be locked up in some pound." He looks Daryl in the eye. “I aint going back to no pound.”

He sighs. "Well you need to eat, keep your strength up. I'll go out and find us something."

When Merle doesn't make Daryl promise not to go out until nightfall like he usually does, just lays his head back down while breathing shallowly, Daryl knows what ever is wrong with Merle is becoming serious.

Daryl hangs around until the sun is just beginning to set before he can't make himself wait any longer. He climbs out of their little burrow in the side of an embankment. They were lucky to find this place, as close to the river as it is. It makes finding clean water one less thing to worry about.

After scanning the area for any unfamiliar scents, Daryl slinks off into town. He's careful to stick to wooded areas and alleyways whenever he can, trying not to draw any attention to himself.

He makes his way to the local supermarket first, so he can check the dumpsters out back. They’ve had decent luck here in the past and the quicker Daryl finds something, the quicker he can return to Merle. Quietly slinking around the back of the building, Daryl’s lucky enough to find a row of garbage bags propped up against the side of a dumpster. He can get into the big metal bins when he has to, but it isn’t the easiest and it puts him at more of a disadvantage should someone try to corner him. One of the bags smells strongly of meat and Daryl makes short work of tearing into the bag. Inside, he discovers a mostly still intact pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. Unable to believe his luck, Daryl picks the food up in his mouth. He turns around to head back the way he came, and freezes. Standing there is another male dog, one Daryl's never seen before.

Daryl growls, meat still clamped between his teeth but prepared to drop it if the dog comes any closer. He needs this food for his brother and he's not about to lose it without a fight.

The strange dog takes a step back, his head and tail ducked low and ears pressed back against his head in a sign of submission. "Chill man, I don't want any trouble."

Some of the tension leaves Daryl’s body and he stops growling, although he remains cautious just in case. He catches sight of the collar around the other dog’s neck. He must be someone's pet, then. There's a metal tag hanging from the collar, but he's not close enough to make out the name inscribed on it. The thought that the dog’s owner might be nearby makes Daryl scent the area nervously. There's no telling what kind of human they'll wind up being. Back when he was still a pup, Merle had been kicked by a human child and wound up getting hurt badly. In time Merle had healed, but he'd never forgotten the small human’s cruelty.

"Look, I'm leaving. I don't want to steal from you." With this, the other dog takes a slow step backwards, eyeing Daryl curiously, before turning and quickly disappearing around the corner of the building.

Daryl waits until he's sure the other dog is gone and not coming back and then takes off with the chicken at a run back to where he'd left his brother.

-

The sun has begun to set once he gets back, the sky quickly darkening as he ran.

Daryl ducks his way into the burrow and carefully sets his mouthful down as soon as he's inside.

"Merle? I'm back. I brought food." When there's no response, Daryl grows worried. He moves farther into the darkness and finds Merle in the far back corner, curled up in the pile of soft leaves and scraps of fabric they'd drug in to make a bed.

He nudges his brother gently with his nose. "Merle. Wake up."

The older dog just continues to breathe shallowly, not appearing to wake at all.

Daryl whines fearfully. Food forgotten where it lays, he curls up around the other's form. Daryl doesn't know what's wrong, but it's obviously very serious. He makes a promise to himself right then that come daylight tomorrow he'll go out and find help.

-

Daryl sleeps fitfully and he's awake in time to watch the first streaks of light begin to fill the sky. With one last careful look at his brother, Daryl goes loping off into town.

The city is pretty quiet this early in the morning, the only movement being the occasional car whizzing down the road.

He whines anxiously and tries to pick up the scent of any people that might be around. Daryl has no idea how quickly Merle's condition is worsening, but he knows he doesn't want to leave him any longer than he has to.

Daryl turns down another street at random. He hears a door bang shut behind him and quickly whirls around. Spotting a streak of fur, Daryl quickly makes his way over to the chain link fence of a little yellow house. The dog he'd seen come out of the house pauses in its inspection of a particular patch of grass and looks up when he hears Daryl's approach. To Daryl's surprise, he realizes it's the same dog from the supermarket.

The strange dog trots over to meet him on the other side of the fence. "Hey, I remember you!" Taking in Daryl's appearance, breathing hard and shifting his weight with a nervous coiled energy, his body language shifts into that of concern. "Are you ok?"

"Something's wrong with my brother, I don't know what to do."

The black and white Border Collie looks at him worriedly. "What happened?"

"I don't know. Merle's gotten sick before, but he's always gotten over it in a matter of days. Last night I brought back to food you saw me with, but he wouldn't wake up."

"Oh, man. I'll grab my human; she'll be able to help. If I can get her to follow us, do you think you could lead her back to where your brother is?"

Daryl nods while at the same time wondering why he's even agreeing to this. What are the odds that this house dog's owner would be willing to help a couple stray mutts?

The Collie runs up to the house and starts feverishly scratching against the front door. After a few moments, it swings open to reveal a young blonde woman on the other side. "Glenn? What on earth has got you in such a hurry?" She wrinkles her nose and Daryl hears her take a careful sniff. "You didn't get sprayed by a skunk again, did you?"

The dog backs up a couple steps and barks. Daryl files the name ‘Glenn’ away in his mind. He’d been too distracted by his concern for his brother to bother checking the tag on the dog’s collar for a name.

"What is it- oh" Spotting Daryl on the other side of the fence, the young woman frowns.

Glenn barks again and backs away a little farther from the house and towards Daryl. He whines.

"What wrong? Are you and your friend ok?" The woman looks both dogs over as closely as she can from the doorway.

The Collie barks one last time and then slips underneath a loose section of the fence.

Eyes widened in surprise, Glenn's owner moves to follow. She hesitates as if suddenly remembering she’s barefoot and wearing pajamas. "Ok, you want me to follow you. Just wait one second." She dashes back into the house, and appears a minute later wearing sneakers and an oversized hoodie. Locking the door behind her, she quickly opens the gate and walks out onto the sidewalk. "Ok, show me where we’re going."

Glenn looks to Daryl and without a moment's hesitation Daryl quickly starts leading them to the burrow.

Despite Daryl’s efforts to move slower than his fear urges him to, Glenn’s owner has to run in order to keep up.

She pants, clearly not having expected to be chasing after two dogs first thing in the morning.

They arrive at the embankment and Daryl scrambles down the side before disappearing into the burrow.

Bypassing the untouched chicken at the mouth of the burrow, Daryl moves back to where his brother is. This time when he nudges Merle, the older dog’s eyes open sluggishly.

“Time is it?”

“It’s early morning. How do you feel?

Merle groans. “Like shit.”

The swishing of dry leaves being walked through comes from outside the mouth of the burrow and Merle’s head snaps up.

“What was that?”

Daryl looks behind him to see that Glenn’s owner has made her way down the embankment and is now standing a little ways away from the opening with a concerned look on her face. He doesn’t see Glenn, but maybe the other dog knows better than to surprise Merle with too much at once.

“I found someone who can help” Daryl explains, praying that he’s telling the truth.

“You did what?” Merle flicks his ears back in anger.

Daryl whines. “Merle, you’re sick. I can smell it on you now. This human seems nice, maybe she can get you some help.”

It takes a pleading look and a bit more needling, but Daryl finally manages to convince his brother that this is the best thing to do- not that they have much of a choice when the alternative is wait and hope that Merle gets better on his own, leaving them vulnerable in the meantime. 

Daryl exits the burrow first with Merle following behind and wags his tail at Glenn’s owner to show that he doesn’t mean her any harm.

Merle’s hackles raise when he spots Glenn standing off to the side, passive but no doubt ready to jump in and defend his owner if need be.

The human woman gasps. “Oh, look at you. You poor thing.” She carefully holds a hand out in their direction for them to smell, obviously still wary despite her concern.

Daryl wags his tail and comes closer so she can pet him. Merle remains just far enough to be out of reach, but he doesn’t growl or run off, so Daryl takes that as a win.

Sensing that everything is alright for the moment, Glenn happily trots over and smiles at Daryl. “Beth is great, she’ll know what to do. My other owner is an animal doctor, I think you’ll like her.”

Just then the woman’s phone rings, and she fishes it out of the pocket of her pajama pants.

Beth looks at the screen before quickly answering.

“Amy, hey.”

_“Beth? Where are you? I woke up and you were gone.”_

“I’m sorry. I let Glenn outside and I was in the middle of making coffee when he started scratching at the door. When I came out to see what was wrong, there was this other dog with him and-“

_“Another dog? Is Glenn ok?”_

“He’s fine, don’t worry.” Beth stays silent for a moment. “You know how on one side of the road that we take to go visit my dad, there’s a ditch with a river at the bottom?”

_“Yeah… why?”_

“Can you hop in the car and meet me there?”

_“What?! Why are you way out there?_

Beth winces. “I’ll explain when you get here, ok?”

_Amy sighs. “Ok, I’ll be there in five minutes.”_

“Thank you” Beth smiles. “Love you.”

_“Love you too.”_

After hanging up Beth smiles at the three dogs. “She’ll be here soon. It’ll be ok, you’ll see.”

Daryl turns towards his brother and noses at his side. “So? Is this ok?”

The older dog huffs. “I guess. The first sign I see that something is wrong and I’m leaving, with or without you” he warns.

Daryl smiles, knowing that’s a lie. They’d sworn as pups to always come back for each other if one of them were to get in trouble.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been in my wips folder for awhile now. It needed some editing and to be finished, but I had actually done a better job than I had thought! Let me know what you thought, I'm always happy to talk about Glenn/Daryl and Glenn, Daryl, and Merle in general :). I'd be willing to write a chapter two if anyone is interested.
> 
> I don't know a lot about dog illnesses, but I'd probably say that Merle ate something bad and got severe food poisoning *shrugs*. I'm not majoring in anything related to animal health. He's fine you guys, don't worry.


End file.
